GearBox Gallery presents Watching / Waiting, an exhibition of paintings by Christine Ferrouge and weavings by Joy Ray. Life comes with perpetual risk and uncertainty. One turn of events can collapse a natural environment or change everything we thought we knew. Along with our bodies, our thoughts and memories are also fragile and ephemeral. Although we wait and watch, our worst fears don’t always come to pass. What does it look like to acknowledge this precariousness? This is what artists Christine Ferrouge and Joy Ray explore in this timely exhibition.

Christine Ferrouge

Christine Ferrouge's paintings follow her young daughters' journeys through a precarious world. Her inspiration comes out of wonder and concern - looking for the cracks in their psychological, environmental, and social influences. While aware of the risks and threats her daughters face, she is continually amazed at their ability to negotiate a dynamic and complicated world. The paintings reveal young women-to-be adapting with firmness of character and indomitable spirit.

Ferrouge grew up in Minnesota and fell in love with painting at a young age. She studied art in Florence, Amsterdam, and Spain; and holds a BFA in painting from the University of Evansville, Indiana. Recent honors include exhibiting Picnic in the deYoung Museum Open Exhibit; and current exhibitions in exciting group shows at Epperson Gallery, Gray Loft Gallery, and Yolo Arts. In addition to studio practices in Oakland and Los Angeles, Ferrouge is a teacher, curator, and promoter of the arts, who contributes passionately to art communities such as: the Oakland Art Murmur, Los Angeles Art Association, and Kipaipai Fellows. Ferrouge was accepted into GearBox in 2021, where she participates in on-going member shows. This is her second featured show at GearBox Gallery.

Joy Ray

Joy Ray's delicate weavings test the very limits of fragility, investigating what it means for things to be held together, barely –”"coming apart at the seams." Ray lived for several years near a mountain lake that would lightly freeze in the winter, creating a tempting hazard for curious snowplayers. Inspired by this, her monochromatic weavings suggest hairline cracks in semi-frozen ice, a subtle yet ominous reminder of the precarity of the natural world.

Joy Ray lives and works in Hawai'i and Los Angeles, and exhibits internationally. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster CA, the Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose CA, the Hawai'i Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hawai'i State Art Museum, Art Basel Ping Pong and ShockBoxx Project. Her work is held in the collection of the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster CA and in private collections. She has been featured in publications including LA Weekly, Artillery, Whitehot and Riot Material. Joy Ray received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and is currently an MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.